When the title was awarded in 1955, some people felt that the title was low and asked for promotion, but some people also asked for demotion. Xu Haidong was awarded the rank of Grand General, ranking second only to Su Yu and ranking second among the generals. After Xu Haidong learned of the news, he found Premier Zhou and asked for a demotion, on the grounds that he did not participate in the Liberation War and felt that his contribution was too small, but the premier said that he had made a major contribution.
Indeed, the level of military rank is bound to have a direct relationship with the size of the contribution, and the CCP can be said to be full of talented people, especially in the Liberation War, a large number of brave and good war talents have emerged. After all, the rank of general has only 10 places, which is very precious, and each one is carefully considered by the central government. Xu Haidong took a long period of recuperation from 1925 to 1940, and the time to carry out the revolution was only 15 years, while the golden period was five years.
And it was precisely these five years that determined the fate of the Red Army.
The Central Red Army moved north
In November 1934, Xu Haidong received orders from the central authorities to prepare to start the Long March, leading the Red Twenty-fifth Army to break through the enemy's four blockade lines from western Anhui to northeast Hubei, and began the Long March in the name of the Second Advance Team of the Red Army's Northward Anti-Japanese Resistance.
In July 1935, he arrived in the Xi'an area, and in order to prepare for the Central Red Army to go north, he decided to march west to Gansu. After completing the mission, he led the Red Twenty-fifth Army to northern Shaanxi, and on September 18, he arrived at the town of Yongping in the Soviet District to meet liu Zhidan's troops and form the Red Fifteenth Army, serving as the commander of the army.
In October of the same year, Xu Haidong led the Red 15th Army to victory in the battles of Yulin and Laoshan, and supported the Central Red Army to move north. In November, Chairman Mao led the Central Red Army to the town of Wuqi in northern Shaanxi and met with Peng Dehuai with Xu Haidong.
Defend the revolutionary base areas in northern Shaanxi
After a long march, when it first arrived in northern Shaanxi, the Central Red Army was very difficult, lacking food and clothing. Xu Haidong asked the whole army to cut back on food and clothing and support the Central Red Army in terms of personnel and materials.
Chairman Mao wrote to the Red Fifteenth Army to borrow 2,500 oceans. Xu Haidong immediately took out 5,000 oceans from the 7,000 oceans raised by the legion and handed them over to the central authorities. For the Central Red Army, this money was life-saving. Commander Peng Dehuai saw Xu Haidong and said, "Those money are really charcoal in the snow, and we should thank you a lot for being the god of wealth!" ”。
The Red Twenty-fifth Army led by Xu Haidong marched more and more people along the way, and the number of people grew from more than 3,000 people to more than 7,000 when they arrived in northern Shaanxi, almost doubling. And his troops were much richer than the Central Red Army.
But compared with the economic difficulties, the Central Red Army also faced greater difficulties, that is, greater encirclement and suppression from Chiang Kai-shek.
After Xu Haidong led the Red Fifteenth Army to victory in the Battles of Laoshan and Yulin, Chiang Kai-shek was very angry. On October 28, Dong Yingbin, acting commander of the 57th Army of the Kuomintang Army, led the 106th, 108th, 109th, and 111th Divisions to encircle and suppress the Central Red Army that had just arrived in northern Shaanxi with the strength of four divisions. At this time, the Central Red Army's foothold was unstable, its people were sleepy and lacking, and the situation was grim. At the moment of crisis, Xu Haidong led the Red Fifteenth Army and the Red First Army of the Central Red Army to break the encirclement and suppression of the enemy army, and in this battle, a total of 1 division and 1 regiment of the Kuomintang army were annihilated, more than 5300 people were captured, and more than 3500 guns of various kinds were captured. A "groundbreaking ceremony" was held for the CPC Central Committee to place the base camp of the national revolution in the northwest.
Escorted in the Xi'an Incident
On December 12, 1936, the "Xi'an Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries occurred, and the pro-Japanese faction He Yingqin mobilized two group armies to launch a siege on Xi'an. In order to cope with this war, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng sent a request for help from the Chinese Communists, naming Xu Haidong.
Chiang Kai-shek's troops approached Tongguan, and with the consent of the central authorities, Xu Haidong led the Red Fifteenth Army to the Xi'an area. In early January 1937, Xu Bu arrived in Xianyang and was appointed commander-in-chief of The South Road. Yang Hucheng temporarily assigned his garrison brigade to Xu Haidong's command, along with a division of the Northeast Army, the Red Army's 74th Division in the southern Shaanxi base area, and the Anti-Japanese 1st Army.
Xu Haidong ordered the Red Army commanders and fighters to run forward, and the next day seized a large mountain north of Shangzhou City, took control of Shangzhou City, and built fortifications. An hour later, the enemy arrived and found that Xu Haidong and the Red Army had arrived here first, retreating 20 kilometers overnight. Subsequently, the "Xi'an Incident" was resolved peacefully, and Xu Haidong and the Red Army led by him contributed to it.
Pingshiguan attacked the Japanese army
On September 21, 1937, the commander of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Army, Toshishi Miura, led six brigades of infantry artillery to attack the first line of Pingxingguan in two ways, in an attempt to break through the Pingxingguan defense line and join the Japanese army north of Yanmen Pass to capture Taiyuan, and then occupy the whole province of Shanxi. Xu Haidong was under Lin Biao at the time, serving as the commander of the 344 brigade.
Xu Haidong and his troops set out from Sanyuan to advance to the North China Front, arrived in Yuanping on September 12, and rushed to Pingxingguan to participate in the siege and annihilation of the Japanese army. Xu Haidong commanded the 687th Regiment to attack from the left flank, and after a day of bitter fighting, together with his brother troops, annihilated more than a thousand Japanese troops.
After the end of the Battle of Pingxingguan, in late November, the Japanese army mobilized the 5th, 14th, and 109th Divisions and the Chahar Dispatch Corps of the Kwantung Army and a total of more than 20,000 puppet troops, and divided 8 roads to besiege the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area, and Xu Haidong crushed the Japanese attack under the leadership of Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.
In June 1938, Xu Haidong commanded the Battle of Machidian and annihilated a company of the Japanese 25th Division, killing and wounding nearly a thousand Japanese troops.
Recuperate from illness
In the same year, Xu Haidong fell ill in the North China Battlefield due to long-term fatigue, and then went to Yan'an to recuperate. On September 15, 1939, he left Yan'an for the battlefield in central China and served as the deputy commander-in-chief of Jiangbei of the New Fourth Army. In January 1940, Xu Haidong fell ill in the battlefield of eastern Anhui, and has been in a state of recuperation ever since, never to return to the battlefield.
However, Xu Haidong made great contributions to the Red Army at a critical moment, so the award of the rank of great general was well deserved.